Poll: Which Is The Most Intriguing General Manager Job?

After recently polling MLBTR’s readership about which of the six open managerial positions had the most to offer, it only follows that we ask the same question about the three general manager vacancies.

For simplicity’s sake, let’s use “general manager” in this sense as the person in charge of a team’s baseball operations department, even if that official title could be something different (i.e. president of baseball ops) on a particular team. If you’re a hypothetical executive who has multiple GM offers presented to them, deciding which job to take demands a big-picture view. Which franchise has the most to offer a new GM in terms of resources, which range from everything from player payroll to front office staffing? Would a GM have full control of baseball ops, or is there another rung above them on the organizational ladder? Does a team already have some good players in place and is expecting to win, or is a rebuild under way, or will a rebuild be under way in the near future?

With all these factors (and more) in mind, let’s take a look at the three open GM jobs…

Mets: As disappointing as New York’s 2018 season was, this is still a team that boasts one of the game’s best pitching staffs, plus some intriguing young building blocks in Brandon Nimmo, Amed Rosario, and a healthy Michael Conforto. If incumbent veterans like Yoenis Cespedes, Jay Bruce, and Todd Frazier can avoid the DL and regain some of their old productivity, the team’s lackluster lineup will already get a huge boost, not even factoring in what external additions can bring into the fold. There is certainly opportunity for quick improvement in 2019, and since the team doesn’t have any payroll money guaranteed beyond the 2020 season, there’s plenty of room for extending in-house stars and adding some other notable salaries in trades or free agents.

That’s the good news about the Mets job, though as any follower of New York’s sports media could tell you, there’s also quite a bit of bad news. It’s still unknown how much financial flexibility the Mets actually have, as while team payroll has cracked the $150MM mark in each of the last two seasons, that’s still a modest figure for a club that plays in the New York market. There’s also the open question about how much autonomy a general manager truly has within the organization, given how owners Fred and Jeff Wilpon are so often accused of taking a heavy hand with their input in the baseball operations department. For instance, it’s unusual that an incoming GM would be inheriting three influence senior members of a team’s current front office staff, and there is uncertainty if a new GM would really be allowed to fire John Ricco, J.P. Riccardi, and/or Omar Minaya unless ownership allows it. Manager Mickey Callaway is also staying on for 2019, so a new general manager wouldn’t even able to select their own preferred voice in the dugout. It also might not help that the Wilpons themselves are reportedly looking for different things in a general manager, as Jeff prefers to hire a younger GM with an analytics background, while Fred wants a more experienced name from a scouting and personnel background.

Giants: The main pro and the main con of the San Francisco job amount to the same thing — this is a team that expects to win. Even if 2019 may be a season more focused on something of a rebuild-on-the-fly, there is little doubt that the franchise wants a turn-around after two straight losing seasons. To this end, a new GM will have money to spend, as the Giants haven’t afraid of exceeding the luxury tax threshold in the past, and are now free for more big spending after (barely) getting payroll under the threshold this season to reset their escalating tax payment figure to zero. There’s also no small amount of appeal in taking over one of baseball’s top-tier, most historically-rich franchises, and a team that has three World Series championships within the last decade.

The downside, of course, is that taking over such a team means taking on a lot of pressure. There may be more of a case that the Giants need a rebuild rather than a reload, given how many expensive veteran contracts are on the books. (And how more veteran additions could be coming, if the Giants stick to their logic from last offseason.) Madison Bumgarner, the Giants’ best asset, is also scheduled for free agency after the 2019 season, so the contention window may be particularly short unless Bumgarner can be extended, though the team is at least open to listening to a GM that would suggest Bumgarner be traded.

There is also some question of autonomy within the chain of command, as long-time executive Brian Sabean is staying on in an upper-management role, plus Bruce Bochy is being retained as manager. Team CEO Larry Baer has said, however, that the new baseball operations head will be reporting to him, and will have the freedom add new faces to the front office mix. This could be a situation where the “new GM” is really a president of baseball operations, with a general manager also hired in a secondary role to handle day-to-day duties.

Orioles: The cleanest slate of the three jobs, the Orioles are undergoing a change in direction at the very top of the organization, as John and Louis Angelos take over ownership duties from their father, Peter. It remains to be seen how the Angelos brothers’ style will differ from that of Peter Angelos’ style, though there has already been some indication that the Orioles are adopting a more standard approach to baseball operations (such as a new willingness to spend on international players). It also isn’t clear if a new GM will have the full autonomy that the team’s recent media release claims, or if incumbent VP of baseball operations Brady Anderson will still have a major voice in the decision-making process.

This all being said, while it might take some years for a general manager to remake the Mets or Giants in their own image, the new Orioles GM can put their big stamp on the organization as early as this offseason. Rather than navigate pre-existing payroll hurdles or expectations of contention, the new Orioles only has to focus on rebuilding for the next several years. As low as the Orioles sunk in 2018, the lure of a total rebuild could be enticing to many candidates — Blue Jays baseball ops VP Ben Cherington, for one, would seemingly only leave his position in Toronto “to build an organization from the ground up,” according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal. A new general manager also has something of a head start on the rebuilding process due to the number of young talents acquired by former baseball operations executive VP Dan Duquette in the trade deadline deals of Manny Machado, Zach Britton, Kevin Gausman, Darren O’Day, Brad Brach, and Jonathan Schoop.

The reason Mozeliak would do well in New York is because he and ownership ca formulate a rebuild plan in the minor leagues. Also he would be free to go after impact players in the Mets organization. In that respect, the Cardinal Owners Suck!!! The only thing they want to put money in is their Ballpark Village!!! Not the Cardinal team!!!

“The combination of the Mets’ reluctance to embrace analytics, coupled with the perception the new GM or president of baseball operations won’t have full autonomy — with team COO Jeff Wilpon calling the shots — isn’t helping club officials in their search for Sandy Alderson’s replacement, according to sources.”

@Kingjenrry Agreed, pretty sure Xabial was one of the people on here who knocked Zack Wheeler way back when his name was in trade talks saying he was barely a Major League Pitcher or something pretty similar to that lmao. I take his comments regarding the Mets with a shot of penicillin.

Must have me confused with someone else. Actually want Yanks to trade for Wheeler, but realized who Mets owners were, (jealous, salty refuse trade w/ Yanks, unless they overpay, So called Wilpons losers. It’s a common theme of my posts; Always call out the Wilpons — not team (players) or fans. You can continue to be a Wilpon apologist and be content with mediocrity. Not even asking you to boycott the team you love so much. (Never did, never will) just asking you to be a realist with regards to the state of your team.

Fans like crown are in a deep state of denial having grown up supporting the Mets when they didn’t know any better. However many learned from their parents, who as my brother points out should be arrested for child abuse for brainwashing them at such a young age.

Having thought in 2015 that all of the years of disappointment were now offset with retribution they have now had a three year dose of more of the same.

Unable to cope they limp here to post the Mets’ Manifesto:

-Next year we will all be healthy.
-Let’s multiply those half season’s performers by two for next year.
-We can make believe that the minor leagues are stocked by staring at the statistics of players in Las Vegas.

Simple truths stymie them.

-Until the Mutt and Jeff Show comes to and end there is no hope.
-No smart,capable leadership will work for the Abbott and Costello team.
-they actually need to be committed to an institution to rid themselves of Mets mojo.

If it wasn’t you then I apologize Xabial. Hey Mike Yanks you talk about the Owners which all Mets fans know are complete morons and known as the Wilpigs. Enough about my team though. Really must hurt to watch Your Number One get smacked and not even go more then 4 innings in a huge game at home. Then show up late and warmup about 10 minutes before Gametime lmaooo. Maybe you guys can Rent Degrom from the wilpigs for game 4!!

Also name any Mets Fan who believes the Minor League System is stacked? Aside from Alonso who will probably be a 250-260 hitter at the Major League Level with 30 plus homer power and the young Giminez who is still developing and too early to get hyped about. No Mets fan will tell you our farm is that good. Alonso is the only exception who has shown he can hit with power at each level.

Maybe the Yankees are trying to flease the Mets and they wanted no part of that? They paid for JA Hapless yet refused any real offer for Degrom or Wheeler. Cashman offers trades like a Yankee fan wants bag of balls for good or great players.

Yanks have a true bonafied Big Time Ace Like Degrom they win the series hands down. Syndergaard or Wheeler could be a different story for their season also. They payed the price for not having a BIG TIME post season pitcher other then C.C.

It really isn’t. Ownership has and will okay massive contracts, massive extensions, and blockbuster trades. This ownership group traded Matt Williams and got Jeff Kent, signed Barry bonds and zito to huge contracts, signed lincecum and Cain to massive contracts, have privately financed a stadium in one of the most expensive real estate markets on the planet, and have just now reset the tax bill, indicating they expect to spend a boat load of money in the near future. Giants have one of the best ownership groups in the game. Not only that, they aren’t a bunch of divas always in the news, you mostly never hear from or about them.

Spending big is great. But that’s not good enough, in today’s game. You have to also rebuild from time to time, and take the financial hit that comes with lower revenues during that period. It’s a painful move, and it’s pretty obvious that the refusal to do so is coming from the top…just like with the Angels.

Both owners have been happy to sit in a massive market, and collect revenues off the star power of their players, knowing full well that the only way to win would be to instead trade those players away, and rebuild.

The Red Sox are in just as big a market, and the Yankees an even bigger one, and they were both willing to give away seasons and do rebuilds. It happened to work out for the Yankees where 2017 and 2018 weren’t lost years (and in fact even 2016 worked out kinda nice, with Sanchez hitting 20 homers in two months and keeping them in it pretty late), but ownership didn’t know that when they approved the selloff. They were aware that the prospects might not work out, and they might not have a competitive team for at least three years…which would’ve meant massive losses in ticket sales (though they of course would’ve still had the guaranteed TV contract to fall back on).

The Giants and Angels need to make that same math, and accept the losses that come with it. The fact that they haven’t already done this at least a year ago (in the Angels’ case 2-3 years ago) shows that they’re inflexible and not particularly passionate about going the extra mile to win. They’re in it for the steady revenue stream, first and foremost.

Some people see the fact that the Giants have historically shelled out those huge contracts too frequently as one of the biggest factors wrong with the team. Too many times (even in pro sports) the best solution is NOT throwing more money at the situation, but instead it is developing a sustainable system. The Giants DON’T have that for sure.

If I’m not mistaken, Larry Baer is the richest owner in baseball since he took majority control of the organization a while back. He certainly hasn’t accumulated that type of profit over time for being a poor owner.

Charles B. Johnson is the majority owner, and he is a billionaire many times over. Larry Baer is the managing partner, so he is the only visible member of the ownership group. His expertise lies in marketing.

Yanks No Brains, maybe an actual Stud Ace might have saved you guys when it comes time for Post Season baseball. What happened other then CC’s one game? Your team cannot even buy the great starting pitching that team needs lmao. Great starting pitching usually always shuts down Great hitting and the Red Sox literally embarrassed your Stankees in your own ballpark lmao. Do you think Severino knows what being ELIMINATED means or is he going to show up to the ballpark tomorrow ready to play lmao. God I remember when Yankee fans were chirping like he was just as good or on the same level as Degrom hahaha

Has to be giants or o’s. Ownership is changing for better in Baltimore – with the older Angelos out for the younger one, hopefully – while ownership seems good in SF. The Mets ownership however is allegedly not that great.

Truth. On the other hand, the Mets have more young talent than the other two in a weaker division. The Braves would have been a 4th place team in the AL East and we’re seeing how they compare to the Dodgers.

LOL. Giants better be last. Old. Washed up. Sabean is a lunatic who doesn’t know what he’s doing. No farm. Terrible coaching and development team. Literally could go on and on. D-Rod is a fluke, Suarez has no potential in the bigs, Belt has the worst contract in the NL. Terrible bandwagon fan base. Disgusting organization. They will be in a rebuild that will probably last 8 years maybe more because of how good the Padres and Dodgers will be.

Disgusting organization?
1. The last time the Dodgers won a title you probably weren’t even born and Reagan was president.
2. If you live in LA I bet you can’t even watch the dang game on TV. What a great ownership they have to make sure their fans can watch.
3. They would build a statue for Tommy Lasorda but it would scare away the kids. Even Piazza is wearing a Mets hat. What’s been the Dodger legacy the last thirty years?
4. Bandwagon fan base? They had the most consecutive sellouts in NL history. All-time the Giants beat the Dodgers in wins and World Series titles.
5. Dodger fans don’t get paralyzed or killed visiting and wearing their team’s colors.
6. Giants fans aren’t known for walking in at the 3rd inning and leaving during the 7th. You know who is?

If you’re a Giants fan, #5 is rich. Remember when Giant fans use to throw batteries at opposing fans at Candlestick? Of course you don’t because you probably hopped on the wagon in 2010. Of course, there’s also that time a group of Giants fans killed a Dodger fan outside of At&T in ~2013, but don’t get let facts get into the way of your narrative.

Nope started rooting at the Stick during the Will Clark years. In high school we’d pay $2.50 for a bleacher seat and $5 for parking. Been there for the good and the bad.

The Dodger fan death was a street fight brawl between two groups, and not some innocent person walking down the parking lot with his kid. Ask any professional sports fan where they would feel safter – at a Giants game or a Dodger game – and I think you know the answer.

They literally determined that the death was in self defense in a street fight that DODGERS FANS initiated. Brian stow was walking back to his car with his wife and kids and was jumped and almost killed.

He can’t because the dodgers franchise is booty compared to the Giants. 8 WS to 6, most hall of famers in MLB history, most wins in professional sports history. The giants org blows LA out of the water

When pathetic insults are the only comeback you can produce instead of bringing up things like facts and stats it rather shows your hand that you have nothing better to produce. Want to make mom jokes next or talk about how great Eric Gagne’s fastball was?

Interestingly enough, Cash is at the end of his 5 (at the time historic for a new guy) year contract……If TB wants to keep him, they’ll need to pony up some money, maybe more than they want to spend. Could be a developing situation.

GM-wise? Orioles are easy; enema the whole organization. Mets? Who knows, it’s a train wreck in search of a dumpster fire. That’s why I voted Giants GM job….lots of ways to go there. It will be interesting which direction they go.

The Giants have the best bet of becoming good again, and their management isn’t crazy like the Mets and dumb like the Orioles. Ramos is an intriguing young prospect, Suarez has crazy potential based on what I’ve seen from him, D-rod will only improve, and there’s always a bunch of money to help solve your problems. That sounds much better than getting limited resources with the Mets and a crazy hard division like the Orioles.

Certain Mets fans love to put a hating on their team and are prone to exaggeration, always complaining.

Sandy Alderson is a big boy who recognizes he fell short. Sandy came to the Mets not liking long term deals in dollars and years and for the most part stuck with that.. The Mets payroll of 150+ is plenty to field a winner. Now the Mets need to hire the right person to build a contender which the Mets have a chance to be in 2019 and the coming years.

Being a GM in New York, is prime opportunity. But that GM has to understand the pressures of playing in the same city as the Yankees that no other team has – and that there will always be some unhappy Mets fans who thrive on complaining – And that Jeff Wilpon cares about the team and therefore, there must be a roadmap ahead of time to work out chain of command and fix communication problems. If everyone pulls from same rope, and the team stays relatively healthy, 2019 should be a turnaround.

Fred .. Jeff … is that you? Any REAL long time Met fan knows that the Wilpon era (starting in 1991) has been, is and always will be one abortion after the next against a backdrop of inexplicable money issues and inconceivable operating dysfunction, with the requisite propaganda that all is well riding shotgun. Hard to believe that after 27 years of the same nonsense, these bozos still have apologists. Unfortunately, the potential GMs that might actually help aren’t among them. There’s nothing compelling about this job.

I chose Giants. To rebuild or to add onto? More intriguing than the other obvious answers (i.e. O’s have to rebuild, duh). Maybe Mets could be intriguing, but building up the farm system is the obvious priority. Giants have a lot of ways to go, and I don’t know which way is obvious.

Giants is probably the best job of the three. With a GM it’s not always about the condition the team is in, but the ownership situation.

The Mets ownership is a mess…even before Madoff they were poorly managed, and they’ve never fully rebounded since. Nepotism is their biggest problem, as their fall from decency has seemed to coincide with Jeff gaining more power.

Working for Peter Angelos can’t be fun, and he seems to be a a pain, as well as spending money in stupid places==i.e., Davis when no one else was bidding—and then not investing where it makes sense. He seems to tie his GM’s hands more than anyone on the list.

The Giants are a difficult organization to work for given their recent success and current situation, but ownership is loyal, spends money, and allows their GMs to do things.

as someone in the bay area, the giants really are a good organization to work for, and I don’t think the pressure is as great as mentioned. Baer has said that there are no timetables on restructuring/rebuilding the team and bochy’s last year s this year. What isn’t mentioned is that it is impossible to sign hitters, you have to deal with CA taxes, the farm is weak and needs refilling.

Giants fans keep saying “it is impossible to sign hitters” as if that is the only way to ever acquire hitters.

Bad trades [Duffy/Fox for Moore “didn’t work out”, in a “traded our 3B and an international prospect who cost us $6M and two years of heavily restricted international spending for a guy we ended up sending to the rangers in a salary dump” way. The Longoria trade was another bad idea, acquiring a fading star with a hefty contract] and the anemic state of their overall drafting and player development just make it LOOK like that to their FO/fans.

(Before someone pipes in with “but homegrown strength!”, the last time the farm system produced a multi-year allstar? Brandon Crawford, who’ll be 32 next season, with no-longer-elite defense, now-below-average range, and streaky hitting while missing only 11 games this year.)

I was thinking Orioles… they have the number 1 pick this coming draft. They have a good shot at signing the Mesa brothers. They only have two big contracts left… Davis and Cobb. As GM, you can really put your name on this franchise with the number one pick this coming draft and probably another very high pick the following season. With a weak farm system, you can gamble on a couple rule 5 guys. Probably a couple relievers and maybe a position player. You will see “your” team start to form in just a couple years.

I voted O’s but, all these organizations are likely plagued with intrigue. The Mets are simple to fix but for the two owner’s interfering with opposing viewpoints. The Giants are just old. They will be the most complicated team to rebuild. The O’s have the most obvious case of owner interference. Worse, its one that has proven it targets only the worst possible player acquisitions.

I voted Mets because it’s a win win. Do bad and everyone will blame the Wilpons. Do great and you’re a king. Giants have aging veterans with no farm. Orioles should I even have to explain this team? Doesn’t help that the Yankees and Red Sox will win 95+ games a year for the next 8-10 years. With the Mets you could actually contend in the nl east and possibly get the 2nd wild card in a year or 2

Giants are in need of a rebuild. Probably won’t happen. Don’t see how the job is intriguing unless ownership says “let’s boost payroll. Spend whatever is necessary”.

O’s are kinda intriguing but that’s going to be at least 4 years.

Mets, although they need to fire some Assistants and change the culture, are the most intriguing team because they have 3 starting pitchers that can dominate. That NL East is still up for grabs next year. Yes they have fickle ownership. This is the month they sell them on the idea of having Machado and/or Harper to make them some money. And perhaps win. But make them money.

I agree with you troll. Ive heard Girsch interviewed once or twice over the course of the last season. Mo probably has never played baseball in his life. I personally knew Jocketty. Just a much different guy that Mo puts off to be. We finally got rid of the mathenagement, time to dump the rest of the upper management. Maybe new ownership would be willing to take gambles on young star players and not overpay for lazy sacks of sh*t (cough: Fowler).

Anybody that takes a job with the Mets and chooses to be a shill for the Wilpon’s is just that, a shill for the Wilpon’s. I’ve been a Met’s fan all my life, (its my Dads fault, but he really was a Brooklyn Dodger fan til they moved to LA). 61 years of lousy baseball less maybe 4 or 5 seasons. I can’t root for the Yankees, I know they’re a great team, but the hatred is just too deep. But I think I hate the freaking Wilpon’s more than I hate the Yankees. Sports suck. Waste of money you could spend on cheap liquor.

The job is more undesirable now than it was, because SA (a known commodity throughout the game) was noticeably of hamstrung by the Wilpon’s dysfunctional ownership style on top of their cheapness, although the two are related. Met GMs don’t have ownership approved budgets when they look to put the team together. The Wilpons’ like to squeeze the nickel until …. with each incremental expense, and they have an aversion to longer term deals and risk taking, but still want to appear like they’re trying to avoid bad media coverage. The Bruce and Frazier signings were more a function of the Wilpons’ operation than of personnel evaluations made by SA.

Who wants to be a GM responsible for filling out a team, but without the power to do so except with two idiots signing off on every move? It had better pay well, because it won’t be a resume builder. SA didn’t care as he was headed for retirement after he was done putting lipstick on this pig. But a young talented GM candidate with a good part of his career ahead of him? Simply not coming, and it’s probably just as well because even a guy who can make an impact probably won’t be able to here.

When it’s all said and done, the GM will likely be someone the Wilpons know or someone that they can otherwise get comfortable with based on relationships. Meaning someone who’s dealt with the Wilpons’ nonsense before and can’t get a better job.

All 3 need full scale rebuilds and have owners that would rather die screaming than allow the GM to do that. Went with the Orioles because they have the strongest farm of the 3 and with the #1 pick this year and probably next it will only get stronger. But Angelos needs to back off.

Well considering the Orioles are a full blown S*#t Show, I would consider almost ANY other job possibility. That includes just taking odd jobs cleaning up around the clubhouse.
Or- Maybe the O’s just stick with Crazy Brady.
BTW- I recall someone saying something about signing international players. I could be wrong, but didn’t some young Cuban phenom recently hold a camp for MLB teams????? Are Cuban players considered “international”?
I think the O’s sent their current Bat Boy Travis Blauman to that workout, but I don’t recall hearing anything about a signing.
Maybe for Xmas, the Angelos boys ( T-Bone & Chaz) will bring back the ghost of Hank Peters to run the club. That would be cool..

There are a few things to remember about the Giants regarding the new GM.

First of all, Sabean is not only still around, but he’s helping to select the new GM/VP. That means that the move to remove Evans was a repudiation of his abilities as a GM, but also a confirmation that Sabean’s long term plan, whatever it is, which was undoubtedly constructed with Baer’s guidance, remains fully in effect.

Secondly, it’s been made clear that, if necessary, the new hire could take on Sabean’s VP of Baseball Ops role. Which also means that the new hire could just be the GM. That shows again that the Giants, while looking for new ideas and abilities in the new hire, is not looking necessarily for someone whose long term view clashes greatly with Baer’s and Sabean’s long term plans, because if they were looking for huge changes, they would have simply said that the new hire would BE the VP of Baseball Ops, that’s the model the rest of the MLB has taken. Instead, the new hire could be the VP, if necessary, to hire him or her away from their current position, but would be GM, if not necessary.

Thirdly, the Giants have operated in a manner where the baseball operations have their ideas of how to maximize the MLB team, and then, within certain parameters, will have to go to ownership to finance and/or okay the move. The Giants, being collaborative, for the most part, ownership generally is aware of what baseball ops is trying to do, and when it gets to the point where ownership needs to okay the move, they should be mostly on board already.

Given the above, it seems clear to me that they are looking for someone to come in and add the latest and greatest things in terms of process and methodology, but not necessarily someone who will shake things up greatly and change their long term strategy, whatever that has been in place, apparently for a long time now. That will probably scare away any of the candidates who want to take over and remake everything in their own view of the MLB world.

Moreover, I think that this is a great opportunity for someone who has different ideas that they want to implement, while understanding the overarching goals that Baer and Sabean has set down. That is, where the new hire understands the general long term directions from the top, but gets (mostly) full leeway to implementing that strategy in however way he/she wants. Sabean in the past, per Colletti interviews, gave his lieutenants a lot of leeway to do their jobs, and to expand beyond their jobs. So they will not necessarily be against the next Sabean who wants to come in and trade away his Matt Williams equivalent (Bumgarner, mainly, in this case).

I say mostly because there will be limitations on what the new hire can do. Like any other team. For example, ownership gets final say on any big money free agent. Maybe they don’t want to pay Harper $500M, even if that gets him to sign the contract. Any trade of iconic players like Posey, Bumgarner, Crawford, will need to be vetted by ownership and probably Sabean, as well. That’s going to happen whether with the Giants or any other team, that’s the reality that’s not acknowledged when some are down about Sabean being part of the decisioning process.

And this is the same ownership group that okayed Sabean trading away Matt Williams, which was not a popular trade, to say the least. The Lunatics were wrong in that regard. Who went out and paid big money for Bonds, Zito, Rowand, Pence, Cueto, Samardzija. Who was okay with drafting Posey when the rumors were that he was looking for $12M, not the $6M, which was still the highest paid bonus for a draftee when he signed. Who paid big record-type bonus money for AnVil, RafRod, Lucius Fox, and now Luciano. So, to say that the new GM will be hamstrung is hyperbole. There are limitations on any new GM with any team.